“Final sales are barely growing. So I don’t see a sustainable recovery coming from that.”

The economy grew 3 percent in the fourth quarter, but many experts expect a slowdown to about 2 percent for the first quarter.

“If we avoid a major external or internal shock,” such as a war with Iran or a major European default, “we may avoid another recession, and that might be good news,” Roubini says.

“But that’s where the good news ends.”

To be sure, after a series of positive economic data in the past few weeks, not all economists are pessimistic. “I’m relatively optimistic,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, tells The Times.

As for severe forecasts like Roubini’s, “I don’t really take those seriously,” he says.

But many experts share Roubini’s view that the recovery is in danger.

“This [jobs report] is still not strong enough to create escape velocity, which is to say an economy strong enough to make it on its own without additional monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve,” Tony Crescenzi, a Pimco strategist, tells Bloomberg.